RC WALL-E Head Demo (final)

This is Version 2. I've replaced the 150lb actuator from Progressive Automations to their 50lb actuator. The 'real' electronics still need to be developed.

Boy Scout meeting visit

I took WALL-E to visit a Boy Scout meeting on their summer movie
night, where the boys watched the WALL-E film.  I explained the
building process & answered questions.  It's very important for me to
communicate to people the possibilities of what they can do if
they have the simple ability to ignore all perceived "walls".
Most people can do way more than they think they can if they give
themselves the patience to learn and not give up.

Weathering paint job complete

Creating the look of weathered metal on wood took a lot of painstaking
effort.  This is my first weathering job.  I was extremely stressed
while doing it.  Why?  Because even if you have every detail
perfect, a bad paint job will destroy the magic. 

WALL-E Body Detail

This has been complete for quite a while now. I am finally getting around to posting the video of it. The weathering has been started on the solar panels. I'll post a video of how I did the weathering later

RC WALL-E Head Demo

This is the first time the remote control is powered up and tested. The look up and down head movement was slower than I imagined.  This was fixed in version 2.  There are more tweeks needed to this setup to make it run like it should.

Maker Faire, San Francisco

Mike Senna & Mike McMaster exhibited their WALL-E replicas in progress at the Maker Faire Bay Area 2011. Maker Faire is an event hosted by Make Magazine that celebrates do-it-yourselfers in the fields of arts, crafts, engineering & science. The event began in 2006 in San Francisco with 100 exhibiters ("Makers"), and has grown to numerous events across the country. This year's event attracted more than 90,000 visitors to the San Mateo County Fairgrounds. It celebrates grassroots American innovation.

Tesla coil demo

  





Senna family with Grant Imahara (Mythbusters)





Mike McMaster & Mike Senna, WALL-E Builders



Here's a video taken at our booth:



Building the WALL-E Robot interview

Thomas from Robots and Androids Dot Com interviewed Mike about building WALL-E. Here's the video:

WALL-E Head Detail

Mike Senna shows the detail that he has built into his Wall-E head.

Marvelous Mechanized Magic Kingdom

Mike exhibited his WALL-E head and hands at this event at the Disneyland Hotel hosted by the 1313 Club, and Neil Patrick Harris. Numerous Disneyland animatronic props & other interesting mechanical devices were displayed around the lobby. R2-D2 appeared onstage with C3pO. It was a great place to test the head automation, where guests pressed the demo button to initiate a series of head movements.  The demo button had to have been pressed well over 250 times.  As I dropped by every once and a while, I noticed people would press the button multiple times to observe the action.  It was still working at the end of the night.  This has passed the test.  Solid design!

Senna family with Neil Patrick Harris

Neil Patrick Harris looks on as Mike shows R2's signature panel

Here's a video taken at event

(WALL-E & R2-D2 appear in beginning):

WALL-E Head Automation

Finished automating WALL-E's head movements, and set it up with a demo button so it can be tested at it's first event at the Disneyland Hotel, Marvelous Mechanized Magic Kingdom.  I'm pretty happy with the movement.   It was completed the night before the event.